Tanderon (30 page)

I went to get the jacket from the desk and came back with it, and Val and Freddy still hadn’t said a word to each other. So I walked to the door and waited, and a long moment later Freddy tore himself away and joined me.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said as we left the classroom and made our way down the hall. “He’s always threatening me … I think it’s his persecution complex.”

“Is it really his fault that you’re stuck here as a cadet?” Freddy asked, his voice tight and his eyes looking straight ahead.

“Partly,” I responded, glancing over at Freddy. “But only partly. I thought you knew me better than that.”

“You can’t mean you were lying?” he demanded in unexplained outrage, stopping short to turn and stare down at me. “Don’t you know what everyone in that room thinks of him now? They think he can’t keep his mind out of a bed long enough to do a job right! That’s a hell of a thing to do to somebody!”

“Well, I beg your pardon,” I said, looking him up and down. “If I’d known he was your father I would have restrained myself.”

Freddy reddened and scowled at me. “I ought to break your neck,” he rasped, and then strode away.

“Hey!” I yelled after him, knowing none of that made any sense. “What is the matter with you?”

He stopped short again, then turned back to me.

“I was going to hit him for you,” he growled, his fists tightly clenched, his face a mask of fury. “What does that make me?”

“Somebody with a lousy memory,” I answered, suddenly regretting his pain as I moved up to where he stood. “Can’t you remember I can take care of myself?

Freddy – ”

“No!” he snapped, refusing to hear anything more from me. “Let’s go.”

He strode off down the hall again, leaving me to follow after him to the landing field.

I tried everything I could think of to jolly him out of it, but we got back to the Academy’s hopper field and he was still answering in monosyllables. The one thing that bothered me most was the fact that his landing was perfect.

0500 came too early the next morning. I groaned out of bed and managed to get out quickly by ignoring the fact that my heart wasn’t beating yet. Morrison and Olveri came by with the same routine, and I responded perfectly if somewhat blurrily. The calisthenics woke me up enough so that I was able to get in to breakfast at the same time as the day before. After Pete got there I started out for my first class, but Morrison stopped me at the door.

“Where are you headed?” she asked, leaning one shoulder against the doorjamb.

“To my first class,” I answered, surprised at the question.

“Wrong,” she said. “You were ordered to be somewhere else at 0700, remember?

I’m here to see that you don’t lose your way.”

“Where am I supposed to be?” I put with a frown. “I don’t remember any orders about – oh.”

All at once the memory came back. Pete and his hysterics of the night before.

“‘Oh’ is right,” Morrison said, opening the door so that the two of us could go through. When we were out on the street she added, “It looks like your campaign might be working on the colonel after all. He told me to make sure you got over to the infirmary. Sounds like he’s getting concerned about you.”

“I don’t want him to be concerned that way,” I grumbled, kicking at a pebble. “He’s treating me like a baby. I don’t know how he found out I’d hurt myself, but you should have heard him! He went on for hours! But at least he was talking to me.”

“Was that all he did?” she asked, glancing sideways at me. “You were over there an awfully long time.”

She was talking about the time I’d spent at 2. She must have been checking up on me, so it was time to do a bit of inventing.

“No, that’s not all he did,” I answered in a low voice, looking down at my feet. “He did something else too.”

“What?” she asked with fairly well hidden amusement.

I glanced at her and then sighed. “He was so mad I hadn’t said anything about being hurt that he had me stand in a corner for more than two hours,” I grudged. “See? He thinks I’m a baby, and I couldn’t even see him from there.”

“Believe me, that’s progress,” she said with a gentle laugh. “He has to start out treating you like a baby to get himself used to the fact that you’re his daughter. Once he’s used to it, he’ll be able to treat you like a young woman.”

“How long will that take?” I asked, adding another sigh. “I don’t know how long I can stand it.”

“Don’t complain,” she advised. “There are worse things than standing in a corner.”

We had reached the infirmary, so we dropped the discussion and went on in to the narrow, antiseptic-smelling reception area. There was a corpsman on duty behind the counter, and when he looked up I gave him my name.

“Oh, yes,” he said, checking a paper. “There’s a doctor waiting for you in room eight. You can go right in.”

I gave Morrison a wry look, then followed the arrow signs down a corridor to the left to room eight. I opened the door, took one look at the doctor, then got inside fast and closed the door behind me.

“Hi, Diana,” the doctor said with a grin. “You’re looking different these days.”

“What the hell are you doing here, Ralph?” I demanded, barely seeing the plain, light green examining room. “Are you trying to blow this whole thing for me?”

“Wasn’t my idea,” he responded with a shrug, leaning one arm on the high, padded table. Ralph is a tall man in his forties who has never had the least doubt that being a doctor means you’re responsible for the entire human race. He was looking me over carefully but only as a possible patient, and I had often wondered if he had ever noticed that I was a woman.

“Pete called me last night after 2100,” Ralph continued, “and told me that if I wasn’t here by 0700 he’d arrange my own private firing squad.”

“What is wrong with that man?” I fumed, seeing Pete’s face in my mind’s eye and wishing he was within throttling distance. “Doesn’t he have any doctors around here?

Did he have to go all the way to Blue Skies to find someone to bandage my wrist?”

“He mentioned something about a physical too,” Ralph said in his driest tone, not in the least upset by my mood. “The way he spoke, I almost believe he’s had you as a patient too.”

I put my hands on my hips to stare at him for a moment, then took a deep breath.

“All right,” I conceded, but not very graciously. “Let’s get it over with. Does anyone around here know you’re from Blue Skies?”

“Sorry, but they do,” he apologized, his mild gaze serious. “Does it make that much of a difference?”

“It might if anyone starts to wonder why I need a doctor from the special hospital to take my temperature,” I said, starting to peel off the uniform. “If that happens I’ll play dumb, but I’ll also take the first opportunity to give Pete a king-sized headache.

Then he can call you back to treat him.”

Ralph chuckled, but the conversation had no chance to distract him from business. I stretched out on the padded table, and he went to work without a word. The physical was fast but really thorough, as he’d gotten a lot of practice working at Blue Skies. When he had finished, he put aside the last of his instruments to study me.

“You’re still working, I see,” he observed. “Why did you need the surroskin?”

“I took too long a bath and my own skin shrank,” I answered, putting my hands behind my head. “Are you thinking of starting a new career in asking silly questions?”

“You’re a lot more tense than I like to see,” he said quietly. “And whatever it is that you ran into, you’re not all the way back yet. How tired do you feel these days?”

“No worse than usual when I don’t get a solid fourteen hours,” I said, stretching a little. “Are you trying to tell me I should be off on a beach somewhere, I hope?”

“It’s not that bad,” he returned with a small laugh, then watched as I sat up, got off the table, and started to get dressed again. “Just take it as easy as you can for a while. No sense in looking for trouble. And no more hot water on that wrist. If you can’t get the grime off with warm, leave it there.”

“Clever, doctor, very clever,” I said with a grudging grin as I retied my tie. “Can I get out of here now?”

“Go ahead,” he said, gesturing toward the door with one hand. “But if you run into any problems, call me. I don’t mind making house calls for old customers.”

“Ex-customers,” I corrected with a last glance at him, and then I left.

Morrison was gone, but she had left word that I could go back to schedule as soon as I was through. I walked into my first class thirty-five minutes late, only to find that the proctor in charge hadn’t heard about any special orders. I almost told him where I’d been before I remembered what he might hear if he called the infirmary to check.

I opted for “No excuse, sir,” took the five demerits, then spent the remaining time there telling myself that if something horrible happened to Pete it would make more problems, not fewer.

By the time I got to the next class, I almost had myself convinced. The only change from the day before was being ordered to an empty room to spend the time between 1230 and 1300, and 1700 and 1740. Pete knew I needed time to put together evaluations and progress reports for the class at 2, so he’d arranged for some privacy. When the time was up I found a good place in the room for the almost finished reports, and left them there. I went back at 1910, but had to cut it short. I was due at the dance at 1930, and probably would have been arrested if I’d turned up late.

The dance was being held in the mess hall, and when I got there I looked around at all the shining young faces. In spite of the size of the crowd I spotted Elaine talking to a boy who looked interested in her. I smiled faintly, then tried to lose myself among all the uniforms. If brown-eyes couldn’t find me he couldn’t pester me, but my luck hadn’t changed poles yet. I was squeezing between the tightly packed bodies the sidelines of a dance always have, when my arm was grabbed from the left. I turned my head, and the boy’s grinning face was right there.

“For a while I thought I’d never find you, then I remembered to look for that red hair,” he said, still holding onto my arm. “I’m sure glad you’re not a brunette.”

“You really know how to hurt a girl, don’t you?” I commented. “Isn’t there anyone else in this whole place for you to annoy?”

“Nope,” he returned with a grin. “You’re the one and only love of my life. Why didn’t you tell me you’re the Commandant’s daughter? That makes it even better.”

“How did you hear about that?” I asked with a frown.

“It’s all over the place,” he answered in surprise. “Was it supposed to be a secret?”

“Not exactly,” I muttered. I’d hoped the story would spread through the proctor ranks, but I hadn’t expected it to get to the cadets this quickly.

“Let’s dance,” he said, then pushed me ahead of him toward the center of the floor. I gave up and went along quietly, wondering how long these dances lasted. If it took too long, I’d probably end up in a straight jacket.

We danced for about half an hour, and I might have enjoyed it in spite of everything if the running around I’d done for the last couple of days hadn’t started to catch up with me. I felt tired from the inside out, and that kind of tiredness isn’t easy to ignore.

“How about taking a break, brown-eyes?” I suggested after we’d finished flying to something called “Good Golly, Miss Molly.” “I’d hate to have to be carried off the floor.”

“Sure,” he agreed pleasantly, “but my name’s Doug, Doug Sammerin. Didn’t I tell you?”

“No,” I said positively. “If I’d ever heard your name I know I wouldn’t have forgotten.”

“That proves it,” he said, chucking me under the chin. “You really do like me, don’t you?”

There was just nothing to say to that. We got some unknown poison disguised as fruit punch and sipped it, then went back to the dance floor. A low, dreamy number had started, and Doug had just put his arms around me when a hand and arm reached from behind me to tap him on the shoulder.

“Cutting in,” said a much too familiar voice, and I turned to see Val standing there with a faint smile on his face. I glanced at Doug, but he was staring at the Agent First Class I.D. Val wore.

“How many of these guys do you know?” Doug asked plaintively, his eyes glued to the I.D.

“At least one too many,” I responded dryly, then looked at Doug sideways. “You’re not going to let him cut in, are you?”

“Are you kidding?” Doug asked in a squeaky voice, turning a bit pale as he stared up at Val. “I think I need some more of that fruit punch.”

He backed off quickly then turned and disappeared into the crowd, so I looked back at Val.

“Hail the conquering hero,” I said, sweeping my arm out to one side.

“And don’t you forget it,” he replied with a nod, then reached over and put his arms around me. He held me to him and started to move to the music, guiding my steps as if he’d been doing it all his life. I wasn’t sure how I felt about his being there and wasn’t about to stop and ask myself, but the tiredness I’d felt had somehow increased quite a lot.

“Where did you learn to dance?” I finally asked as we moved smoothly over the floor. “You’re not the same wallflower I knew just a short while ago.”

“Oh, I picked it up here and there,” he answered, holding me a little closer. “I’ve always been a quick study.”

“Then when are you going to learn to stay where you belong?” I asked, ignoring how good his arms felt around me. “You have no business being here.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to have trouble explaining me away,” he asked with what was probably supposed to be shock. “I find that hard to believe.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” I replied with a shrug. “We got to know each other on the liner coming here, remember? I guess you just decided to renew the acquaintanceship.”

“That sounds reasonable,” he agreed in a murmur, and I moved my head back to get a better look at him.

“What are you up to?” I asked with suddenly awakening suspicion. “When you agree with me, I must be saying something wrong.”

“I’m not up to anything,” he said with his own shrug. “I just came to dance with Colonel Rodriguez’s daughter. And such a young daughter she is, too. I’ll be that if she did anything out of the way, the colonel would make her regret the day she was born.”